This invention relates to a semiautomatic handgun having multiple safeties.
A handgun is designed to be held and fired with one hand. A double action handgun must be first cocked manually, then fired. A semiautomatic weapon does not require manual cocking in between shots, but discharges only one round per trigger pull. A fully automatic weapon fires repeatedly as long as the trigger is pulled. Most modern handguns are semiautomatic.
In a conventional semiautomatic handgun, the hammer is held in its cocked position by a latch called a sear inside the gun, until the sear is displaced by pulling the trigger. The sear automatically moves to its latching position during recocking.
An object of the invention is to improve gun safety. Other objects are:
to improve ease of assembly, disassembly and service;
to prevent accidental firing if the gun is dropped, for example;
to prevent unauthorized firing is the gun is seized from its owner;
to permit the user to lock the gun from either side of the gun;
to prevent someone from disabling the pistol by pushing on the muzzle;
to permit the user to safely decock the gun;
to permit replacement of rails when they wear;
to improve accuracy by eliminating free play between the slide and the body;
to reduce wear between the slide and the rails;
to improve the smoothness of the action;
to improve a inertia activated trigger safety;
to improve magazine replacement speed;
to produce a crisp trigger feel;
to align bore with line of sight, and improve control by reducing height of slide;
to block unintended linear movement of sear;
to prevent sear release if the gun is dropped on its muzzle;
to block the firing pin from moving when the gun is dropped; and
to prevent unauthorized person from releasing safety lock.
These and other objects are attained by a semiautomatic handgun having multiple safeties, as described below.